Will the Budget of 2012 mark a watershed? I suppose only time will tell.

But here’s a visualisation of how government approval ratings have collapsed over March

Update: To add: the chart finishes in March. Govt’s approval ratings have fallen to -43 since.

Update 2 But don’t get too happy, as @leobarasi points out. A fall this fast means volatility, so it could recover quickly too. And with net approval, a 1% move from approve to disapprove means -2pt change. So recovery could be easily as quick.

It’s important not to get carried away with such figures, which reflect transient events rather than underlying trends. The government does still lead Labour on the economy, and if Gideon conjures up any growth this quarter, you can bet he’ll sing it from the rooftops as a Tory success.

I’m more interested in seeing a comparison between Labour’s and the Conservative’s rankings on economic competence over the last few months. That’s a better indication of how the country’s feeling politically

If the economy falls into a new recession then that will severely damage the coalition’s economic reputation. Imagine that graph with another drop like that after budget and things will get even worse for Cameron and Osborne.

I don’t know anybody who has any confidence in the economy or any political party.
All is spin, manipulation or simply lies.
For thirty years politicians have relied on perception, it now seems that we perceive them to be corrupt and incompetent – can you blame us?

It probably doesn’t mean much, after all as Harold Wilson said: “A week is a long time in politics.” But, but …. Cameron has made it two weeks of ineptness:

1. The budget and the granny tax – kick poor retired people
2.Cut 50p tax rate – poor people pay; rich people don’t
3. Throwing T May in front of a buss with the 40p minimum alcohol price the day after to distract from the granny tax – attack poor people more generally
4. Cash for cosy dinners in the No10 flat – you don’t count unless you’re rich
5. The pasty tax, even though an EU directive (or else Osborne would be sued by fish and chip shops) – poor people again and no way he could admit that he takes his orders from the EU
6. Petrol panic – an attempt to distract from all the other bad news?
7. Snooping on everyone – another episode of throwing T May to the wolves with her pathetic excuse about catching one murderer by taking away everyone’s civil liberties.

So a little bit more than a PR disaster or lack of a spin doctor. Nobody could spin this amount of incompetence.